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Coffee Induced Early Morning Rant / Korean Junk
« on: December 28, 2015, 11:54:57 PM »
At this point I am ashamed to admit that I own one of Don's favorite vehicles, a Kia Optima. I bought it new in March of 2012 after totaling the wife's other ride. I was in a bit of a rush and did not research it much. It was a little over $20k for a nicely equipped car (leather, power seat, push button start and a few other do-dads that I still ain't figured out what they are for). Up until last Wednesday it had gone 49,321 absolutely trouble free miles. When I started driving 370 miles for my week long trips to work we decided it would be best to drive the car that got double the fuel mileage (35 highway) and cost half as much to replace and leave the dually for my wife to run around in locally. I was about 20 miles from my destination when the trouble started. I was accelerating to merge onto the highway. The thing started making all kind of racket. The mechanic side of my brain said "boy that ain't good". The employee side said "you just gotta make it there in time to get on that helicopter". The freeway ended shortly and I pulled into a parts store. I got out and checked the oil because it sounded like it would if it had all run out. Oil level was fine and really clean on the dipstick. I made it to my destination and did some more checking and got a coworker to look at it too. We saw nothing loose or jumping around other than the entire engine. I looked up and called the nearest dealer. I was informed that I was still under the road hazard warranty so they would tow it to the nearest dealer at no cost to me. I informed the service writer that I would be back on dry land in 7 days and would not need transportation until then. Fast forward to today when they got it in the shop. With Christmas being Friday I expected that. I got a voicemail that there was trouble in the bottom end of the engine and it would need to be replaced. After a few hours of phone tag I finally spoke to them. I was told that during the inspection they noted the inside of the top end was absolutely spotless, no gunk buildup at all. When they drained the oil it was clean. When they dropped the oil pan the bottom end was really clean as well except for some metal shavings. The #1 and #2 rod bearings had spun. I change the oil around every 5000 miles and have run Mobil 1 filter and synthetic oil since new. He said they could tell it was maintained because of how clean it was internally. A claim has been made that has to go up the line for approval. He informed me that this had happened to several of these 4 cylinder engines in Kias and Hyundais. Apparently they think they got a bad batch of bearings at the engine assembly plant at some point. Not sure yet about availability of a replacement. Some of them are on 4 to 5 week back order, but not sure if this is one of them. I will say that even though this is frustrating and disappointing, the customer service from the dealership has been great. He made several attempts to call me back during our game of phone tag. They are providing a rental car for me to get home that I will turn in locally. Kia covers 3 days of rental but I really just need to get home. 370 miles is a long way to walk and my rear fenders would probably not make it here with the rest of my truck if the wife had to come get me. All this is covered under warranty, but it don't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about this car. They cover power train to 100k. I don't see me keeping it past that for sure.